Aberdeen Bach Choir 2018 Programme

Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Patrons: Dame Emma Kirkby, Professor John Butt OBE Musical Director: Peter Parfitt Aberdeen Sinfonietta Leader: Bryan Dargie

Handel Israel in Egypt

Soprano – Elinor Rolfe Johnson Alto – Phillipa Thomas Tenor – Ronan Busfield Bass - James Williams

Sunday 2nd December 2018 at 7.45pm www.aberdeenbachchoir.com

St Machar’s Cathedral Charity Number: SC008609

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

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In an emergency remain seated until given instructions by the stewards.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

ISRAEL IN EGYPT Israel in Egypt (HWV 54) is a biblical oratorio by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) with a libretto assembled by Charles Jennens (1700-1773). The text consists entirely of extracts compiled from the Old Testament books of Exodus and Psalms. Handel wrote only two oratorios with exclusively biblical texts, Messiah being the other one. Israel in Egypt was completed in the space of just 20 days and was premiered at London's King's Theatre in the Haymarket on April 4th, 1739. The original version of the piece was in three parts rather than two, the first part more usually known now as the funeral anthem The Ways of Zion do Mourn (written earlier in the same year for the funeral of Queen Caroline, with altered text as The Sons of Israel do Mourn), lamenting the death of Joseph. This section precedes the Exodus, which in the original three-part version is Part II rather than Part I. This performance will comprise the original Parts II and III. Handel composed Israel in Egypt soon after the opera season at the King's Theatre was cancelled due to a lack of subscribers. The oratorio was not well received by either the Daily Post, if contemporary reviews are to be believed, or the first audience. This was partly because of the exclusively scriptural text, which did not sit comfortably with some in a secular theatre, and partly because of the imbalance between the many (some might say relentless or incessant) dense choruses and double choruses, against the paucity of poignant and tuneful arias and duets for the popular ‘divas of the day’. Additionally, London audiences at that time were not used to such extensive sacred choral pieces presented as commercial entertainment; and it is likely that the opening dirge, in the original version of about thirty minutes in length, detailing the death of Joseph, and recognisably adapted from the funeral anthem for a recently deceased and much loved Queen (Handel no doubt wishing to give the piece a commercial life beyond its single outing at the Queen’s funeral), contributed to the failure of Israel in Egypt at its first performance.

The second performance was shortened, and the work was subsequently revised by Handel, who augmented it with some Italian-style arias. Israel in Egypt and Messiah also share the unusual characteristic amongst Handel’s oratorios in that, unlike the others, they do not have casts of named characters singing dialogue and performing an un-staged drama. The work was published for the first time in 1771 (Parts II and III only) by the publishing house of Randall of London. Along with Messiah, it became a firm favourite with audiences at secular performances at the Crystal Palace in the later nineteenth century.

The speed at which Handel completed some of his compositions can be partly attributed to his propensity for blatant plagiarism and parodying (the copying/reworking of existing music), both of his own work and that of others. In his 2013 book, Music in the Castle of Heaven, Sir John Eliot Gardiner quotes, and then expands on the quotation from William Boyce at the top of the notes later in this programme: [In terms of the polishing of pebbles]…“the most blatant and in some ways baffling example of this practice occurs in his great oratorio Israel in Egypt. Of its thirty-nine numbers no fewer than sixteen owe a melodic motif (and sometimes a lot more besides) to four other composers – Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682), Johann Kaspar Kerll (1627-1693) and two rather obscure Italian composers, Dionigi Erba (1692-1730) and Francesco Urio (1631-1719). Some of their material clashes with Handel’s style, whilst some of it is frankly banal; but it seems to have acted like a trigger, detonating Handel’s creative processes. In every case he enriches and surpasses his models. The overall result is one of the most original and dramatically gripping sequences of choral/orchestral writing to have survived from the middle years of the eighteenth century.”

In writing Israel in Egypt, Handel stole heavily and shamelessly from Stradella’s wedding serenata Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?, and Erba’s Magnificat. Other composers Handel parodied in Israel in Egypt were Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), Nicolaus Strungk (1640-1700), Friedrich Zachow (1663-1712; a native to Handel’s home town of Halle) and Giovanni Gabrieli (c1556-1612). The music of these composers was almost certainly not generally known to London audiences at the time, if known at all, which suggests that they would have been entirely unaware of this plagiarising, assuming the work to be all brand new and original material by Handel himself.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

SYNOPSIS PART 1

An announcement is made that a new Pharaoh has come to the throne of Egypt who does not look kindly on the Israelites. God chooses Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage.

A series of plagues falls on Egypt: the rivers turn to blood; a plague of frogs covers the land; blotches and blisters break out on the skin of cattle and people; flies and lice swarm everywhere; locusts appear and destroy all the crops; hailstorms blight the country; a palpable darkness descends; and, finally, the eldest born sons of all the Egyptians are struck down dead. The ruler of Egypt agrees to let the Israelites depart, but changes his mind and pursues them. The Red Sea miraculously parts to let the Israelites cross in safety but, when the pursuing Egyptians try to cross, the waters close back in to engulf them and they are drowned.

PART 2

The Israelites celebrate their deliverance, along with an element of the recounting of the story of Part 1. A series of joyful choruses and reflective arias and duets are included in the second part, with the piece concluding with a soprano solo and chorus proclaiming that The Lord Shall Reign For Ever And Ever and The Horse And The Rider Hath He Thrown Into The Sea.

The work is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings and continuo.

The opening of the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah, in Handel’s handwriting.

Programme notes, Commentary and Glossary by Peter Parfitt 4

Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

THE TEXT, WITH A MUSICAL COMMENTARY

˚See simple glossary at the end of this commentary which explains some of the technical musical terms.

PART 1 Unusually, Handel doesn’t bother with an overture to this work, but opens, somewhat undramatically, with a simple secco˚ recitative for the tenor, launching straight into the action. (Traditionally in oratorio the tenor voice is used for that of general narrator, or Evangelist in the case of the Passions, unless a specific character is being represented.)

Recitative Tenor Exodus 1, vv 8, 11, 13

Now there arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph; and he set over Israel task-masters to afflict them with burdens; and they made them serve with rigour.

This first chorus is steady, almost plodding, and in compound duple˚ time. The music is introduced by the altos, and many of the subsequent entries are imitative˚. Handel varies the texture between smaller groups of voices and all eight parts at once, both in counterpoint˚ and homophonically˚. This is the first time that Handel has written a movement for double choir since his psalm setting of Nisi Dominus written in 1707, some 32 years earlier.

Chorus SATB˚ SATB Exodus 2, v 23

And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and their cry came up unto God. They oppressed them with burdens and made them serve with rigour; and their cry came up unto God.

The tenor progresses the story with another short passage of secco recitative.

Recitative Tenor Psalm 105, vv 26, 27, 29

Then sent He Moses, His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen; these shewed His signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He turned their waters into blood.

From here on, and for the foreseeable future, the burden of the narrative falls unusually on the chorus, Handel no doubt wishing to exploit the much greater scope for dramatic writing that a double chorus affords than that of a single voice. As we shall see, Handel draws on an extensive range of dramatic effects with his choral and instrumental writing. This chorus is fugal˚ but the fugue subject, heard first in the tenors and passing in turn to the altos, sopranos and basses, is angular and uncomfortable in its shape, relying on large melodic intervals and falling chromaticism˚. Handel portrays the reluctance of the Israelites in the jagged musical shapes of the melody. The music for this movement is partly parodied˚ from one of Handel’s earlier keyboard fugues.

Chorus SATB Exodus 7, vv 18, 19

They loathed to drink of the river. He turned their waters into blood.

The first of several arias, this movement has a restless, jumpy, unpredictable and yet witty accompaniment, based on a dotted rhythmic feature and played out between the first and second violins. Here Handel is painting a musical picture in the background to illustrate the text in the foreground.

Aria Alto Psalm 105, v 30 Psalm 78, vv 48, 50 Exodus 9, v 9

Their land brought forth frogs, yea, even in their King’s chambers.

He gave their cattle over to the pestilence; blotches and blains broke forth on man and beast.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

Fanfare figures alternating between the lower voices and the trombones are punctuated by the upper voices and the violins which, in a type of forerunner to Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee”, depict the buzzing of the plagues of flies and lice with very fast short bursts of highly energetic music. The addition of three trombones to the orchestra was unusual at this time and provides the music with a rich, deep sonority rarely associated with Baroque music. The music for this movement is parodied from Stradella’s wedding serenata “Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?”, although the fast, buzzing violin part is an original Handelian addition – the proverbial polishing of a pebble!

Chorus SATB SATB Psalm 105, vv 31, 34

He spake the word and there came all manner of flies and lice in all their quarters. He spake; and the locusts came without number and devoured the fruits of the ground.

Opening antiphonal˚ exchanges between woodwind and strings, followed by a suggestion of pattering rain, soon yield to the full force of a musical hailstorm. The two choirs are also used antiphonally; and forceful interjections from brass and timpani, and furious string writing complete the picture. The music for this movement is also parodied from Stradella’s wedding serenata “Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?”.

Chorus SATB SATB Psalm 105, v 32 Exodus 9, v 23

He gave them hailstones for rain; fire mingled with the hail ran along upon the ground.

The tempo slows right down for this chorus. Hesitant strings and bassoon begin the depiction of thick darkness. The choir sings homophonically to begin with; and the harmony is mysterious and shifts unpredictably. A tremolando˚ figure in the left-hand part for the harpsichord is a highly unusual instruction in music of this period, but extremely effective dramatically. The vocal parts, which had begun together, gradually fragment and the homophony dissipates into single voices; it is as if the choral parts are moving blindly away from each other, groping their way through the darkness.

Chorus SATB Exodus 10, v 21

He sent a thick darkness over all the land, even darkness which might be felt.

Anger and vitality return for this fugal chorus which is accompanied forcefully by the entire orchestra, the second bassoon making its first appearance at this point. The music for this movement is partly parodied from another of Handel’s earlier keyboard fugues.

Chorus SATB Psalm 105, v 35

He smote all the first born of Egypt, the chief of all their strength.

Optimism is heard in the music for the first time in this triple-time chorus and the music is in a major key.

This is the only movement in the entire work to feature the flutes - not a very economical use of resources.

Handel exploits the gentleness of their tone to reflect the sentiment in the text. The phrase “He led them forth like sheep” is set for one voice at a time only, and is accompanied by a sostenuto˚ accompaniment in the lower strings. The music becomes fugal at the mention of silver and gold, and there is much imitation in the voices and the upper strings, before a final declamatory homophonic ending. The music for this movement is also parodied from Stradella’s wedding serenata “Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?”.

Chorus SATB Psalm 78, v 53 Psalm 105, v 36

But as for His people He led them forth like sheep: He brought them out with silver and gold; there was not one feeble person among their tribes.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

Unusually, at the start, this next chorus is accompanied only by woodwind and continuo, the brass and strings joining in later. This movement has two main musical ideas which jostle each other for supremacy; for the text “Egypt was glad when they departed” the mood of the music is gentle, but with the words “For the fear of them fell upon them” it changes; and this passage of text is set much more aggressively and is sung inégal.̊

Chorus SATB Psalm 105, v 37

Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them fell upon them.

This chorus begins with two bold statements, each answered by a more submissive and restrained phrase.

The music then broadens into a fugue for double chorus. The subject starts in the basses and logically progresses up through the voice parts in turn, ending with the sopranos. The upper strings and upper woodwind are occupied with fast-running countersubjects˚, the figuration of which soon spreads into the upper voices. The music for this movement is partly parodied from Erba’s Magnificat, and partly from a keyboard canzona by Kerll.

Chorus SATB SATB Psalm 106, v 9

He rebuked the Red Sea and it was dried up. He led them through the deep as through a wilderness.

This hugely dramatic chorus, which follows without a break, is characterised by dominating and oppressive rolls on the timpani – a common feature in Romantic music, but unusual for the Baroque. Far from being fugal, the voice parts are entirely homophonic and are accompanied by fast running triplets in the bass, the strings and the continuo.

Chorus SATB Psalm 106, v 11

But the waters overwhelmed their enemies; there was not one of them left.

This short chorus is quasi-recitative, and is a huge, bold statement. The text is delivered emphatically and as straightforwardly as possible, without embellishment or ornament. The final cadence˚ is highly unusual and convincingly evokes a sense of unease by colouring the words with an unfamiliar harmonic progression.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 14, v 31

And Israel saw that great work that the Lord did upon the Egyptians; And the people feared the Lord.

Another fugal chorus, this time with a very short subject of just six equal notes. Again the voices enter in ascending pitch order, starting with the basses and ascending, but then immediately repeat the passage in reverse, starting with the sopranos and descending. Each of the main cadential points is decorated with a hemiola˚ (a device much favoured by Handel, especially in his instrumental and dance music). The music for this movement is yet another parodied from Stradella’s wedding serenata “Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?”.

Chorus SATB Exodus 14, v 31

And believed the Lord and His servant Moses.

INTERVAL PART 2 This opening chorus is entirely homophonic and is quasi-recitative in style. The choirs are accompanied by repetitive dotted rhythms in the orchestra in the manner of a French Overture. The next chorus follows continuously.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 1

Moses and the children of Israel sung this song unto the Lord and spake, saying: 7

ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

This is a joyous double chorus full of fast, florid sequential˚ runs and short interjections of imitation in all voices in turn.

Chorus Exodus 15, v 1

I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea.

This beautiful duet for two sopranos, a moment of calm reflection, is built around true antiphonal dialogue with the voices imitating, conversing and complementing each other throughout. Passages of parallel thirds and sixths are common, and the voices are gently supported by continuo and violin obbligati˚. The music for this movement is parodied from Erba’s Magnificat.

Duet Soprano, Alto Exodus 15, v 2

The Lord is my strength and my song; He is become my salvation.

Another slow and declamatory quasi-recitative chorus which is entirely homophonic, and in which the text is delivered as expediently as possible. The music for this movement is copied from Erba’s Magnificat – I say copied rather than parodied, as, in this case, it is taken by Handel without any alterations to the original at all, apart from the text.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 2

He is my God and I will prepare Him an habitation; my Father’s God.

This fugal chorus begins a cappella˚, the instruments joining in only after the opening exposition˚. This fugue has dense polyphony˚ and, although not parodied, is more in the heavy style of J.S. Bach than Handel. The thematic material for this movement is based on a Ricercare˚ by Giovanni Gabrieli, which Handel must have encountered during his time in Venice some thirty or so years earlier.

Chorus SATB Exodus 15, v 2

And I will exalt Him.

Finally the chorus are given some respite as the tenor and bass soloists make an appearance. This joyous duet, accompanied by two obbligato oboes and bassoon, with strings and continuo, is largely antiphonal; the two voices carry on a conversation for the most part, singing together only on a few short occasions.

The music for this movement is partly parodied from Erba’s Magnificat, and partly from a Te Deum by Urio.

It is in a reduced ternary˚ form, falling short of a typical Baroque da capo aria.

Duet Tenor, Bass Exodus 15, vv 3, 4

The Lord is a man of war: Lord is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.

This slow and thoughtful chorus is constructed over a number of pedal points˚ with a very slow rate of harmonic pulse˚. The music for this movement is also parodied from Erba’s Magnificat.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 5

The depths have covered them: They sank into the bottom as a stone.

A joyous and uplifting chorus with a fast tempo and prominent roles for the brass and timpani. The full eight-part texture is contrasted on occasions with pairs of voices. The music for this movement is also parodied from Erba’s Magnificat. The next chorus follows straight on with no break.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 6

Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power; Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

This movement acts as a type of coda to the previous one. The tempo suddenly becomes very slow and the voices are treated homophonically. The word “greatness” is painted with a very unusual harmonic colour resulting in a surprising and somewhat unwelcome dissonance.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 7

And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee.

Another fugal chorus in which the voices of Choir 1 enter in descending pitch order, starting with the sopranos. Again the movement begins a cappella and the instruments join in only after the exposition along with Choir 2. After this point the voices of Choir 1 continue to be treated fugally, whereas the voices of Choir 2 are not, acting merely as a background to the fugue by providing accompanimental interjections to the counterpoint. The music for this movement is again parodied from Erba’s Magnificat.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 7

Thou sentest forth Thy wrath which consumed them as stubble.

A fast single chorus in which passages of quick-running quavers alternate with passages of more static harmony and repeated sustained notes in various parts in turn. The chorus, unusually, ends with a short ritornello˚.

Chorus SATB Exodus 15, v 8

And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

This aria for the tenor is very Handelian, full of melismatic˚ passages visiting the extremities of the pitch spectrum. The voice is accompanied by the upper three string parts and continuo. The music is purposeful, driving and optimistic with much forward momentum appropriate to the text.

Aria Tenor Exodus 15, v 9

The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

The music for this aria is somewhat on the cheerful side given the text – Handel clearly taking the side of the Israelites! The soprano is joined by the two oboes which carry on a dialogue over the continuo. Note that the two words “they sank” are always set syllabically˚ and to a falling interval.

Aria Soprano Exodus 15, v 10

Thou didst blow with the wind; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.

This chorus is entirely homophonic and syllabic, the text being delivered in the most expedient way possible.

The tonality ambiguously varies between major and minor with subtle changes from one phrase to the next: Handel often ends a phrase with a major chord and then begins the next with the corresponding tonic minor chord. The chorus leads straight into the next movement without a break.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, vv 11, 12

Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the Gods? Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchest out Thy right hand.

This short fugal chorus begins with the basses, and the fugue subject then spreads upwards through the texture. The counterpoint is dense and somewhat turgid. The lower resonance of the three trombones adds weight to the serious mood of this movement.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 12

The earth swallowed them.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

This gentle duet for the alto and tenor is accompanied by the two violin parts which play only intermittently.

The music is loosely in binary form, with an opening section (the first line of the text) featuring melismatic word setting and lively rhythms, and the second section (the second line of text) being entirely syllabic and with a much more gentle rhythmic structure. The music for this movement is yet another parody from Erba’s Magnificat.

Duet Alto, Tenor Exodus 15, v 13

Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.

This chorus begins with a sinister, dotted, ostinato˚ rhythm in the strings. Through the use of diminished˚ chords and unsettling harmonic shifts, Handel brings the text vividly off the page here. There is word painting in abundance, from the appoggiaturas˚ and suspensions˚ on the words “melt away” to the diminished chords on the word “afraid”, and the total lack of any movement at all on the words “as still as a stone”. For the second time in this work the word “greatness” is inexplicably treated with an unexpected and uncomfortable dissonance, all the while accompanied by the insistent and intimidating jagged, dotted rhythm. Despite the unsettling mood which the music creates, it is, in fact, parodied directly from Stradella’s wedding serenata “Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?”

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, vv 14, 15, 16

The people shall hear, and be afraid; sorrow shall take hold on them: all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away: by the greatness of Thy arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Thy people pass over, O Lord, which Thou hast purchased.

This movement has more of a pastoral feel to it. The alto is accompanied by the upper strings and continuo and is given gentle phrases with beautiful melismas contrasted by expansive sustained notes. The voice is accompanied by the upper strings and continuo.

Aria Alto Exodus 15, v 17

Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.

This homophonic chorus is very short, and mostly accompanied by a regular “walking” bass figure.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 18

The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

A short passage of secco recitative for the tenor.

Recitative Tenor Exodus 15, v 19

For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

This is an exact repeat of the chorus preceding the tenor aria.

Chorus SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 18

The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

Another short passage of secco recitative for the tenor.

Recitative Tenor Exodus 15, vv 20, 21

And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them:

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

This final movement begins with two single lines from the soprano, representing the character of Miriam, and answered each time by the full eight-part chorus, leading into a final triumphant choral section full of joyous, running sequential passages and excited interjections. The words “I will sing unto the Lord” are treated to augmented note values which, against the rest of the texture, sound almost like a superimposed chorale melody, although they are not.

Chorus Soprano SATB SATB Exodus 15, v 21

Sing ye to the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously; the Lord shall reign for ever and ever. The horse and the rider hath He thrown into the sea.

˚SIMPLE GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS Secco Compound Duple Imitation / Imitative Counterpoint Homophonic SATB Fugue / Fugal Chromaticism Parodied / to Parody Antiphony / Antiphonal Tremolando Sostenuto Inégal Countersubject Cadence Hemiola Sequence / Sequential Obbligato A Cappella Exposition Polyphony / Polyphonic Ricercare Ternary Pedal / Pedal Point Harmonic Pulse Ritornello Melisma / Melismatic Syllabic Ostinato Diminished Chord Appoggiatura Suspension

Literally dry – recitation for solo voice with minimal accompaniment from the harpsichord and cello Music which has two beats in the bar, each of which is subdivided into three smaller sub-beats Where individual parts deliberately imitate each other at a short distance Where individual parts move independently of each other, starting and stopping at different times Where individual parts move together, with the same rhythm simultaneously Soprano / Alto / Tenor / Bass A strict form of music where one part begins with a clear motif, or subject, which is then repeated by other parts in turn joining the texture; similar to a round Where the music moves up or down by very small intervals, usually just a semitone at a time To copy, arrange, borrow, plagiarise music already written – either by oneself or another person.

Where two or more parts appear to be having a musical conversation or dialogue, taking it in turns to speak Where one or more notes are repeated as quickly as possible for a fixed period of time Sustained – where notes are held on for a long time From the French for “unequal”. A Baroque performance practice where pairs of straight quavers are played in a dotted or uneven way; a kind of Baroque equivalent to a modern swing rhythm in jazz A second melody played concurrently to the main theme or subject – especially in a fugue The final few chords of a musical phrase or sentence Where the natural emphasis of the time signature is temporarily displaced for effect; e.g. where two bars of three time suddenly sound like three bars of two time, or vice versa Where a fragment of melody and harmony is repeated several times, each time becoming successively higher or lower in pitch A solo instrument, or instruments, in a vocal aria usually accompanied by strings and/or continuo Voices only – unaccompanied by instruments. (Literally – as “in chapel”) The opening section of a piece (in this case a fugue) where the new themes are heard (exposed) for the first time The same as counterpoint An elaborate contrapuntal instrumental composition in fugal or canonic style, popular in Italy A piece in ABA form. In the case of a Baroque aria, known as da capo A sustained note in the bass whilst melody and harmony move freely above The frequency with which the chords (harmony) change In this context, a mono-thematic passage of music for the orchestra only A passage of music where one word or syllable is set to several or many notes A passage of music where each word or syllable is set to a different note A pattern of notes or rhythm which is successively repeated several times A chord made up of minor-third intervals between the parts, historically often used by composers across many nationalities to generate tension or fear, or to intimidate A melodic device, or ornament which usually creates tension by producing a teasing dissonance in the melody line which is immediately resolved A harmonic device which creates tension by producing a pleasant dissonance between two parts, which is immediately resolved

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

The following remark is attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750: "[Handel] is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach." Upon hearing the above statement, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have exclaimed: "Truly, I would say the same myself, if I were permitted to put in a word."

The English composer William Boyce (1711-1779) is believed to have said the following, concerning Handel's numerous borrowings, thefts and parodies of the music of others: "He takes other men's pebbles and polishes them into diamonds."

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) According to a contemporary account by Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789), London magistrate, amateur musician, patron of the arts and a personal friend of Handel, given in his book ‘A General History of the Science and Practice of Music’…

[Handel was] “….in his person a very large made and portly man.

His gait, which was ever sauntering, was rather ungraceful, as it had in it something of that rocking motion, which distinguishes those whose legs are bowed. His features were finely marked, and the general cast of his countenance placid, bespeaking dignity attempered with benevolence, and every quality of the heart that has a tendency to beget confidence and insure esteem. He was impetuous, rough and peremptory in his manners and conversation, but totally devoid of ill-nature or malevolence; indeed there was an original humour and pleasantry in his most lively sallies of anger or impatience, which, with his broken English and heavy Germanic accent, were extremely risible. His general look was somewhat heavy and sour, but when he did smile it was like the sun bursting out of a black cloud.”

Handel’s stature and position as one of the greatest Baroque composers of operatic, choral, ceremonial and instrumental music has long been recognised, and his eclectic and catholic style drew readily on direct influences from the music of Germany, Italy and England. As well as having been a brilliant composer, Handel is also regarded as having been a great dramatist, bringing the texts of his operas, oratorios and anthems vividly off the page with all manner of musical devices. His surviving compositions include 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, numerous trios, duets and arias, much chamber music including many instrumental sonatas and concerti grossi, a large volume of keyboard music, odes and serenatas, dance suites, coronation anthems written for the British monarchy, and sixteen organ concerti. Handel spent the majority of his professional and productive life in London and, informed and influenced by earlier time spent in Germany and Italy, he introduced previously uncommon musical instruments into Britain through his works. These included the viola d'amore, the lute, the trombone, small and high-pitched cornetts, the theorbo, the French horn, the double bassoon, the viola da gamba, the carillon, the positive organ, and the harp.

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THE YOUNG HANDEL George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, in the southern part of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, on February 23rd 1685. His father, an eminent barber and surgeon, denied the young Handel access to a musical instrument, and in fact did everything he could to oppose an interest in music, despite his son’s early passion for it, wishing for a more pecuniary rewarding career in law or commerce. There are various romantic stories about Handel managing to conceal a harpsichord in the attic of the family home, to which he went to practise in the dead of night, but these are by no means definitive. However, somehow he managed to acquire some skill at the keyboard because, on a family visit to the Court of SaxeWeißenfels, where his father was employed as Court Surgeon and where his brother was Valet de Chambre, Handel’s impromptu organ-playing in the court chapel attracted the Duke’s attention, and Handel’s father was persuaded by his employer, presumably largely due to the Duke’s status and gravitas, to allow the boy organ lessons. Lessons on the violin, oboe and harpsichord soon followed and rapid progress was apparently made. Handel took lessons in harmony, counterpoint and composition and copied existing German and Italian manuscripts extensively. In 1702, Handel matriculated at the recentlyfounded University of Halle, studying both law (to appease his father) and music. Later that year, although a devout Lutheran, he was appointed as organist of the Calvinist cathedral. A year later, and without waiting to graduate, Handel left Halle for Hamburg where he held appointments as a first violinist and occasional harpsichordist at the opera house. In 1703, Handel made a visit to Lübeck with a view to succeeding the great German organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) as organist of the Marienkirche. However, since one of the rather unconventional conditions of the appointment was that the successful candidate should be obliged to marry Buxtehude’s only daughter, who was by no means in the first flush of youth, Handel, like J.S. Bach two years later, declined. The period in Hamburg was not a prolific one in terms of composition. Apart from one early opera, Almina (which, bizarrely, is set partly in Italian and partly in German) and some rudimentary instrumental sonatas, there is nothing else from this period which survives.

OFF TO ITALY A visit to Florence in 1706, where his first truly Italian opera, Rodrigo, was produced, brought Handel some valuable recognition and a significant amount of money, as well as the romantic favours of the local prima donna, Vittoria Tarquini, with whom he was later to have a further and somewhat scandalous liaison in Venice. By 1707, Handel was in Rome, playing the organ of the church of St John Lateran, and employed as a household musician in the Court of Marquis Ruspoli. Here he supplied sacred cantatas for the chapel, secular cantatas for parties, weddings and civic events, and a couple of early oratorios which were conducted at their premieres by Corelli (1653-1713). The motets Dixit Dominus and Laudate Pueri also date from this time. Between 1707 and 1711 there are records of Handel conducting his music in other Italian cities, including Siena, Venice and Naples. These formative years in Italy were decisive in Handel’s career; Italy was the European home of opera, oratorio, the secular cantata, and the instrumental forms of the sonata and concerto. During this time Handel also had professional collaborations and friendships with Corelli, Caldara (1670-1736), Pasquini (1637-1710), Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Lotti (1667-1740), Albinoni (1671-1751) and Gasparini (1661-1727). During this Italian period he composed over one hundred cantatas (most of which are now lost), two oratorios (Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and Oratorio per la Resurrezione di Nostro Signor) and a formidable body of miscellaneous instrumental music. The musicologist Winton Dean, writing in Grove, says: “[Handel] arrived in Italy as a young man learning his trade, his music sometimes fumbling and with a certain crudeness and lack of form, and he left it a polished and fully equipped artist with a mastery of form under his belt.” The fact that he composed only two Italian operas (Nero and Agrippina) whilst in Rome can be attributed largely to a papal decree which was in force at this time and which forbade the performance of opera.

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BACK TO GERMANY AND THEN TO LONDON Whilst in Italy Handel made a number of useful contacts, specifically in Venice. These included Prince Ernst of Hanover (brother of the Elector of Hanover and the nominated future King George I of Great Britain), and Baron Kielmansegg (Master of the Horse to the Elector). These friendships were to shape Handel’s future as, in June 1711, he left Rome for Hanover and was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector at the substantial annual salary of 1,000 Thalers. One of the conditions of his employment was that he should have an immediate leave of absence of twelve months in order to visit London. (No doubt his employer, the imminent heir to the British throne, was aware that he was merely transferring Handel from one pocket to another – so to speak – and, by exposing Handel to the British musical establishment, was cautiously paving the way for the inevitable establishment of his own musical court in London.) In September 1711 Handel left Hanover and travelled to London via the Netherlands. This first visit to London lasted for eight months.

Handel arrived in London at a time when the music of the Stuart dynasty was uttering its last gasps. (The Stuart dynasty was founded in Scotland in 1371 with the accession of Robert II, and in Great Britain in 1603 with the accession of James VI of Scotland, King of Scots (1567-1625) and, as James I, King of Great Britain (1603-1625). It ended with the death of Queen Anne in 1714.) A service of thanksgiving, held in 1707 in the newly consecrated St Paul’s Cathedral, and attended by Queen Anne to commemorate the parliamentary Acts of the Union of England and Scotland under one crown and one flag, inadvertently saw the end of a great musical tradition, namely, music composed for the very last time for such an occasion by composers and singers from the Royal Household – by which I mean the Chapel Royal. This included composers such as William Croft (1678-1727) and Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707) who had been somewhat left behind by the great raft of composers of the late Reformation, trying in vain to fill the vast shoes of Henry Purcell who had died in 1695. The newly-unified Great Britain was ready and waiting for a new musical voice and, at the start of the eighteenth-century, London was, by some way, the wealthiest city in Western Europe. (This represents a staggering rise of fortune given both the bubonic plague and the great fire of London which had ravaged and decimated the city a mere decade or two before Handel’s birth.) The new wealth led to a cosmopolitan explosion of new opportunities and extravagant taste amongst the ruling classes, chief amongst these being a predilection for the newly-imported and exciting genre of Italian opera which was becoming very fashionable very quickly. (This is somewhat ironic given that in Rome at the time the performance of opera was still prohibited.)

Whilst on sabbatical in London, Handel gave concerts at the Royal Court of Queen Anne (1665-1714), where his “…writing for trumpets made a great sensation”. He also ingratiated himself at the opera house: the newly opened Queen’s Theatre on the Haymarket (the very same theatre known today as Her Majesty’s Theatre, and where Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Phantom of the Opera has been running continuously since 1986). Aaron Hill, Director of the theatre at the time, gave Handel a libretto from which emerged the opera Rinaldo. This was the first truly Italian opera composed especially for performance in London. Handel completed the piece in a fortnight, much of the music being adapted and parodied from his earlier secular cantatas written in Rome. It was given over twenty performances and was a sensational success. Hill went to a great deal of trouble to make this production a spectacle, with elaborate scenery, impressive machinery to move it about, and, amongst other things, a fresh flock of live sparrows released into the theatre at a specific moment during every performance. The cast was led by three alto castrati, including the very well-known and popular singer at the time, Nicolini, in the title role.

The plot, set in and around Jerusalem during the First Crusade, provided Handel with the perfect opportunity to display to the wealthy and the culture-hungry his talents as a composer, harpsichordist and conductor.

Following this success, Handel was recalled by his employer and left London in 1712 returning to Hanover where, for the next eighteen months, he was obliged to spend time producing chamber and orchestral music – there being no opera house in Hanover. The so-called Hanoverian duets, written for Princess

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Caroline (later Queen Caroline of Great Britain) with continuo accompaniment, also date from this time. A letter of 1713 from Handel to his mother shows that it was his intention – or maybe that of his employer – to return to London. By now Handel was studying English, and had struck up a friendship with the English poet John Hughes (1677-1720), whose short text on the subject of Venus and Adonis Handel turned into a secular cantata. This was Handel’s first attempt at setting English words to music. In the autumn of 1713, he gained the Elector’s permission to make a second visit to London, this time residing as a house guest of Lord Burlington in Burlington House on Piccadilly – the impressive building which today is home to the Royal Academy of Arts. Here he settled into a comfortable routine of composing during the day and playing at concerts by night. Burlington was wealthy and a prominent patron of the arts, and he made Handel very welcome. Four more operas date from this period (Il pastor fido, Teseo, Amadigi di Gaula and Radamisto). Later that year, Handel was given a pension of £200 p.a. by Queen Anne, in return for which he was obliged to divide his attention between composing Italian opera and providing English church and ceremonial music for the British royal establishment. On the back of this pension he moved from Burlington House to a stylish new townhouse in Mayfair. (Today the building is marked by an English Heritage blue plaque.) It appears that the Elector was happy enough for Handel to remain both in his employment, but also in London, as there is no evidence of his having recalled Handel to Hanover.

On August 1st 1714 Queen Anne died without having produced any children who survived past childhood.

Parliament had ruled out a Catholic successor, both then and for ever, and so the Elector of Hanover (great-grandson of James VI and I) duly moved to London, ascended to the throne as King George I, and immediately made Handel a full time member of the royal staff, raising his annual salary to £600, half of which was paid by the court in Hanover. Despite his tangible genius, his proximity to the monarchy, and his growing popularity, Handel was never appointed to the prestigious and coveted post of Master of the King’s Music – the musical equivalent to the position of Poet Laureate. During all of his time in London this position was held firstly by John Eccles (1668-1735) – the longest ever incumbent of the post with thirty-five years’ service, and, on his death, by Maurice Greene (1696-1755), the organist of St Paul’s Cathedral. Handel’s eminence, talent and popularity as a composer trumped both of these gentleman, but seemingly did not outweigh his German nationality; the Hanoverian kings always playing safe by selecting lesser composers, but ones with unimpeachable native breeding.

The final of a series of treaties, known collectively as the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1714, leading Handel to compose the Utrecht Te Deum, the first performance of which he gave in St Paul’s Cathedral playing the newly installed Father Smith organ (about which he was rather disparaging). Rehearsals for this were so popular that they were held before a paying public. During this time he was also responsible for the musical education of the daughters of Queen Caroline. As far as we know, these were Handel’s only pupils during his entire lifetime – something which sets him apart from nearly all of his contemporaries and immediate successors. The newly-ascended King George was knowledgeable about music and had refined taste and, as King of Great Britain, he could afford to indulge it. In 1717 the king and assembled guests set off down the Thames on a lavish barge. Adjacent to the royal barge was a second barge with fifty musicians under Handel’s direction. This was the first performance of two dance suites which we now know as the Water Music. The king was so enthralled by the music that, when the performance was over, he immediately commanded two further performances before allowing the vessels to return to the shore.

The Jacobite unrest in 1716 delayed the start of the London opera season when Handel’s new opera, Amadigi di Gaula, written a little earlier, was premiered at the (now called) King’s Theatre. (The theatre, previously known as the Queen’s Theatre, has traditionally changed its name over the centuries to match the gender of the reigning monarch.) Further concertos, ceremonial music, and instrumental music followed, as did the Brockes Passion – Handel’s only complete surviving work entirely in his native language of German, and his only attempt at setting the Passion story. (The text is not biblical as in the Passions of Bach, but written in literary verse.) It was written for a trip to Germany to visit his ailing 15

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mother in 1719. Whilst in Germany he met an old friend from his university days in Halle, Johann Christoph Schmidt. He persuaded Schmidt to enter his service as a copyist, amanuensis and secretary.

Schmidt returned to London with Handel, anglicised his name to John Christopher Smith and remained in service for the rest of Handel’s life. J.S. Bach was Kapellmeister at Cöthen at this time – a mere twenty miles from Halle. On learning of Handel’s proximity, Bach is reported to have dropped everything and immediately set off by the first available stagecoach to meet him, arriving in Halle a matter of two hours after Handel had left to return to London. This was the closest that these two eminent German Baroque giants ever came to meeting.

Between 1717-1719 Handel entered the service of the Earl of Carnarvon (James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and prominent patron of the arts) as a composer in residence. This position was held concurrently with his royal duties and does not seem to have been too onerous. The only works which we can attribute directly to this employment are the twelve Chandos Anthems, written and premiered at Cannons, a large house in Middlesex, and the ancestral seat of James Brydges. The Duke, a flautist, had a private orchestra consisting of 24 instrumentalists. Fellow native German, and composer of the famous Beggar’s Opera, Johann Pepusch (1667-1752) was the Master of Music at Cannons from 1716. He saw the size of the musical establishment at first expand, and then decline in the 1720s in response to Brydges' pecuniary losses in the South Sea Bubble, a financial crash which took place in 1720.

HANDEL, ITALIAN OPERA IN LONDON: FAME, FORTUNE AND DECLINE During the winter of 1718-1719, the leading members of the London nobility, under the patronage of the king, started a movement to establish Italian opera in London on a long-term basis. The enterprise was known as the Royal Academy of Music and Handel was appointed as its Musical Director. The finest singers in Europe were to be engaged and, in 1719, Handel set off on a whistle-stop European tour to audition, cajole and engage these singers. The Academy opened formally in 1720 with performances of Handel’s opera Radamisto. There followed eight years of unqualified success. London became the operatic capital of Europe, easily attracting the best singers, orchestral players, librettists, directors and scenery designers. The ‘catchy’ melodies of the arias by Handel and his colleagues quickly became fashionable, universally popular and well-known. This music was soon being published in all manner of unauthorised arrangements on cheap sheet music for use in the home. Handel was at the top and centre of this musical revolution, revered by the London public, and the favoured musician of the royal household. He was truly the equivalent of a modern celebrity – with wealth, fame and influence, but also with talent! (One can perhaps draw a more contemporary parallel between this and the general common popularity that the melodies of songs by groups such as The Beatles and Abba enjoy today, in terms of how much they might be regarded as a type of musical common currency, instantly familiar to many corners of the social demographic.)

The next six years saw Handel at the summit of his achievement as an opera composer and dramatist, producing the operas Guilio Cesare, Alessandro, Floridante, Tamerlano, Scipione (from which comes the regimental march The British Grenadiers), Ottone, and Rodelinda. It is somewhat ironic that the man giving the newly-constituted Great Britain its fresh musical voice was a native German, writing operas in Italian. In total Handel composed over forty Italian operas in thirty years. Tamerlano saw the first visit to London of the greatest Italian tenor of the day, Francesco Borosini, who was engaged for a single season for a fee of £2,000 - a staggering amount of money at the time (and roughly equivalent to £1m in today’s money). In Alessandro, two famous prima donnas were engaged at a cost of £1,600 each (note the gender pay gap!). The world famous castrato, Farinelli, was similarly tempted to London by a huge fee, although one might argue that, with prepubescent castration leading to abnormally long limbs, and a voice of serene but childish purity, he had already paid a personal price for his fame. (Are we witnessing here a kind of eighteenth-century equivalent of today’s English football Premier League, with

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international superstars from overseas being sensationally attracted and imported at huge personal gain, but with what must surely become ultimately unsustainable costs?)

Not surprisingly, this recklessness and largesse meant that the Academy began to suffer financial difficulties. This, coupled with the fact that, after a decade of immense popularity, Italian opera was gradually becoming regarded as somewhat passé, meant that the 1727-8 season was the Academy’s last.

Generous and wealthy patrons were simply not willing to subsidise such inflated fees for a genre which was losing popularity. There was the inevitable and ugly disharmony and squabbling amongst the directors, claims and counter-claims of financial corruption; in 1728 the Academy folded.

Not to be deterred, Handel persuaded the Academy directors to let him have the King’s Theatre on a fiveyear lease. He re-launched the Italian opera productions as a subscription series with the tickets priced at 15 guineas per season. The season opened in December 1730 with a production of Lotario, which was not a success. Neither was Partenope in February 1731. Desperate to succeed, Handel fell back on revivals of earlier successful productions such as Guilio Cesare, but the public’s heart was no longer in Italian opera, support was patchy and the popularity and passion of the previous decade seemingly could not be rekindled.

Alongside all of this Handel continued his duties for the royal household. Anthems were written for the safe return of King George I from a trip to Hanover. Anthems were also produced for the Chapel Royal, and, following the death of King George I, four substantial anthems were written for the coronation of King George II in 1727: Let Thy Hand be Strengthened, My Heart is Inditing, The King Shall Rejoice and Zadok the Priest. (Zadok has been performed at the coronation of every British monarch since – traditionally during the anointing of the monarch.) For this occasion, in the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, the building we know better these days as Westminster Abbey, Handel had the services of a choir of almost 200 and an orchestra of 160 players. This building, under the stewardship of the Hanoverian kings, as well as being the centre of regal worship and the royal church, was also becoming London’s grandest concert hall. There are also reports in British provincial newspapers dating from the late 1720s of performances of Handel’s music outside of London, in particular in the cathedrals and theatres in Bristol, Gloucester, Birmingham and Liverpool. In October 1727, Handel applied for British naturalisation and this was granted within a week by an Act of Parliament. The texts of the coronation anthems were drawn and adapted by Handel from the two greatest literary achievements of the English Protestant Reformation: the Book of Common Prayer (prepared by Thomas Cranmer in 1533 and enacted by the First Act of Uniformity of Edward VI in 1549) and the King James Bible, begun in 1604 and published in 1611. (The selection of texts from these two important sources was quite possibly a conscious and essential nod of acknowledgement to the British establishment, from a German immigrant composer, on behalf of a German immigrant king. The establishment had, after all, deliberately rejected the possibility of an English Catholic monarch in favour of a distantly related, but crucially Protestant, foreign Elector as its new Head of State and Head of the Church.) The coronation anthems were one of the most significant building blocks in finding and establishing a new musical voice for Great Britain.

Handel addressed, head on, an issue which had been stifling the sacred music of the English Protestant Reformation, by now almost two centuries old, namely the grandiose and revolutionary concept of combining instruments and voices in sacred music in a new and exciting (some thought vulgar) way.

Handel simply brought on the trumpets and the drums, and consequently everything was notched up a few gears and the public loved it. (This was an issue which the rebellious Venetians, kicking against the dry polyphony of Rome and the Sistine Chapel, had addressed over a century earlier in St Mark’s Basilica, with the rich and extravagant polychoral music of Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi (15671643).)

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THE RELUCTANT SHIFT FROM OPERA TO ORATORIO In 1732 an event took place which was to transform Handel’s life. Bernard Gates, Master of Children’s Music at the Chapel Royal, gave a private performance of Handel’s oratorio Esther at, of all places, the Crown and Anchor tavern, a public house in The Strand. This performance was so popular that two further ones were hastily convened. These are thought to have been the first ever performances of oratorio in Britain. Throughout the rest of 1732-3, Handel staged not opera but oratorio at the King’s Theatre, producing the new works Acis and Galatea and Deborah. These were largely parodies of earlier Italian operas with new and sacred words, in English, and produced not with scenery, movement, costumes and staging, but as concert performances. The biblical stories appealed to the religiosity of an important and emerging new audience. I refer here not to the immoral cosmopolitan aristocracy, who had been the great patrons of Handel’s operatic career (partly in order to satisfy their own desires) but to the evermore prosperous, numerous and politically powerful middle class, which grew and thrived in the sustained economic boom that was Georgian Britain. Oratorio became the soundtrack to the emergence of this movement. In 1734 Handel travelled to Oxford where he gave five performances of oratorio in the Sheldonian Theatre, and also concerts of anthems and instrumental music in Christ Church Hall. He was offered an honorary doctorate by the university but declined it on the grounds that he was “….too busy to attend the awarding ceremony”. Handel’s contract for the subscription series at the King’s Theatre still had one year to run, and he filled this with a sequence of pasticcios (pieces assembled with music by more than one composer), and revivals of earlier successful operas and oratorios. He did inaugurate a new practice during this period of performing especially written organ concertos during the intervals of performances, and most of the organ concertos which remain date from this short period.

Audience attendance remained thin, however, and Handel’s company closed in 1735 in financial ruin.

Handel’s obstinate reluctance to abandon Italian opera when the writing had been on the wall had cost him both financially and in terms of his reputation, and the change to writing oratorio in English was unplanned and not entirely welcome. Furthermore, his physical ability to perform was suddenly somewhat reduced by the symptoms of a stroke, which he suffered in 1737, and which severely limited the use of his right arm. In September 1738 he went, with Smith, to Aachen on the German/French border (Aix-la Chapelle), to take the warm sulphur baths. Within six weeks they appeared to have effected a remarkable recovery, and in November he returned to London and began working simultaneously on two new oratorios, Saul and Israel in Egypt, in an attempt to clear his debts. For the performances of these works Handel hired the King’s Theatre for twelve nights and gave six performances of each. For Saul (libretto by Charles Jennens) Handel assembled huge orchestral forces including three trombones, a carillon (a huge type of keyed glockenspiel), organ, and the huge double bass kettle drums of the Royal Artillery, which were borrowed from the Tower of London. Israel in Egypt, originally entitled Exodus, had words not written by Jennens, but compiled by him from the Old Testament biblical books of Exodus and Psalms. Israel in Egypt was particularly badly received, the exclusively scriptural words being an unwelcome novelty in a secular theatre; and the imbalance between the many dense double choruses, combined with a notable paucity of tuneful and poignant arias and duets, was also unpopular. In short, there were simply not enough arias enabling the divas to show off.

Other works from the late 1730s are the anthem The Ways of Zion do Mourn, written for the funeral of Queen Caroline in Westminster Abbey in 1738, and the Ode for St Cecilia’s Day of 1739. The original part one of Israel in Egypt, later dropped, was a parody from the funeral anthem – possibly a further reason for its poor reception.

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TO DUBLIN, FAME IN THE PROVINCES AND BACK TO LONDON AGAIN Meanwhile, Handel’s popularity in the provinces continued to spread. The formation of the Three Choirs Festival in 1729 (a collaboration between the cathedral foundations of Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester), led to requests for Handel’s music. (This Festival has continued unbroken to this day making it the longest running music festival in the world.) There are also records of a musical society in Edinburgh paying Handel for copies and orchestral parts of the oratorios Deborah and Esther. Handel’s career took another unforeseen development in 1741 when he received an unexpected invitation to visit the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (3rd Duke of Devonshire) and to give concerts for charitable trusts. Handel hastily requested a new oratorio text from Jennens, by now his librettist of choice, and in the three short weeks between August and September composed a new work: Messiah. Handel travelled to Dublin with Smith and took lodgings. Messiah was extremely well received by Dubliners, and within weeks, Handel’s popularity was evident. He remained in Dublin for the rest of 1741 and throughout 1742, giving performances of oratorios and concerts of anthems and instrumental music for a personal subscription series and also for local Dublin charities.

By 1743 Handel was back in London and made an agreement with a newly-opened Georgian theatre in Covent Garden (the building we know today as the Royal Opera House) to produce a new oratorio: Samson. This was very well received, although Handel was dividing Londoners both politically and morally, there being a significant faction of the more prosperous middle classes who were by now predisposed to Evangelicalism, or the new Methodism, regarding anything hedonistic in art as suspicious.

Indeed these people regarded the theatre as “…a haunt of sin and moral laxitude, liable to contaminate anyone or anything with which it comes into contact”. The oratorio, thinly disguised as theatre, was regarded as an act of religion: welcome in a church but totally unsuitable and inappropriate in a theatre.

When Handel gave the first performance of Messiah in a London theatre he advertised it without any reference to its being a sacred work. The performance fell flat none-the-less, and it was to be almost another decade before the work eventually found favour in London, and then not in a theatre, but in the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital.

In April 1744, Handel suffered a second stroke, although the effects of this were more marginal than before. Later that year, he took the theatre at Covent Garden again for a subscription series opening with two newly written oratorios Semele and Joseph, moving on to revivals of Saul and Samson. In 1745, this time for the King’s Theatre, Handel composed two of his most ambitious oratorios to date, Hercules and Belshazzar, both with libretti by Jennens. He announced yet another subscription series with twenty-four performances planned. However, this went so badly, with audience numbers painfully low, that he gave only sixteen performances and was obliged to return money from ticket sales to some patrons. Miss Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806), a prominent London diarist and letter writer, wrote that “… Handel, once so crowded, plays now to empty walls in that opera house where there used to be a constant audience”.

Following the collapse of this subscription series Handel never conducted oratorios again except during Lent and by invitation from Covent Garden.

In the spring of 1746, Handel visited the Earl of Gainsborough in Rutland for “quiet and retirement”.

Further visits and extended stays are recorded to the Earl of Shaftesbury in Dorset, and the country seats of other aristocratic families in Bath, Cheltenham and Tunbridge Wells, whose favour Handel had previously found during his prosperous times in London. In April 1746, victory at the Battle of Culloden by the Hanoverian side over the Jacobites inspired Handel to write the oratorio Judas Maccabeus (from which comes the rousing chorus Thine be the Glory, Risen Conquering Son). From 1747, and seemingly at least partially out of retirement, Handel gave twelve oratorio performances per year during Lent at Covent Garden, invited by the theatre as a kind of composer/conductor emeritus. These were a mixture of revivals of earlier works, but also, with apparent renewed creative energy, a stream of new oratorios

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ensued: Alexander Balus (1748), Joshua (1748), Solomon (1749 – from which comes the well-known Arrival of the Queen of Sheba), Susanna (1749), Theodora (1750) and Jephtha (1752).

Other significant works from this time include the Music for the Royal Fireworks. This was commissioned for a vast outdoor fireworks party to commemorate, after eight years, the end of the war of Austrian succession. The signing of the peace treaty (the Treaty of Aix-le-Chapelle of 1748) had divided the nation and was unpopular with many since the British had agreed to surrender a substantial number of the colonial gains which they had won from the French. (Is this sounding familiar at all…….!) The monarch wanted grand martial music and had requested music for “…as many musicians as possible, but no fiddles”. Handel responded by scoring an extended dance suite for three sets of kettle drums, nine trumpets, nine German hunting horns, twenty-four oboes, and twelve bassoons. Handel himself described it as “a grand overture of war-like proportions”. This was another key building block in the new British musical voice – music which revelled in a love of brass, pomp, ceremony and all things military.

The performance was given in the Vauxhall pleasure gardens, a place where contemporary wealthy Londoners liked to be seen ‘taking the air’. This music literally stopped the traffic and a three-hour coach jam was recorded on London Bridge as twelve-thousand people flocked into the capital to witness the occasion. At the time this was almost certainly the largest single audience to have listened to a piece of music anywhere in Europe and possibly the world.

By 1750, and as a result of this string of oratorios, Handel had restored his financial position to the point where he was able to purchase several paintings, including, at a cost of £8,000, a Rembrandt. Around this time he also began to lose his sight. This was initially the result of an injury to his eyes sustained in a carriage accident in poor weather. The eyes were operated on but in all likelihood this possibly made the symptoms worse and he became completely blind by 1752. With time on his hands he became very involved with the Foundling Hospital, a charitable institution established in London between 1739 and 1742 by the philanthropist and sea captain, Thomas Coram, “…for the reception, maintenance, proper instruction and employment of exposed and deserted young children”. Both Handel and the artist William Hogarth (1697-1764) were to become elected Governors of the hospital in due course. Handel inaugurated a new pipe organ in 1753, which he had presented to the recently-completed Foundling Hospital Chapel, with a performance of Messiah, which was very well received; and performances of this still happen annually to mark this occasion. In September 1758 Handel was again in Tunbridge Wells. By now, in addition to his blindness, his general health was also failing quickly.

On April 11th 1759 Handel dictated his last will and testament. He left behind a total of around £20,000, making generous provision for Smith, Jennens and various other colleagues, friends and musicians who had been loyal to him, as well as a surviving niece in Germany. He also dictated a request to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey that he be “…buried in the Abbey in a private manner”. His request was partly granted in so far that he was buried in the Abbey, on April 20th, some nine days later, but not at all privately, and with full state honours in front of around 3,000 people. Handel owned an art collection that was auctioned in 1760. The auction catalogue listed approximately seventy paintings (including several Rembrandts) and ten prints. His organ, harpsichord and manuscripts he left to Smith. The organ was destroyed by fire. The manuscripts were given by Smith to King George III in return for an annual pension of £200. The harpsichord and all of the manuscripts are now held in the British Museum where they represent the largest collection of any composer’s work, held in a single place, anywhere in the world.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

THE ORATORIO AS A FORM An oratorio, by definition, is an extended musical setting of a sacred text (usually a non-scriptural retelling of a bible story) made up of dramatic, narrative and contemplative elements, those three features being expressed by chorus, recitative and aria respectively. The genre is very similar to opera but with a sacred rather than a secular or mythological text, and the absence of scenery, costumes, choreography and movement. Oratorios are performed statically in the manner of a concert (often in an ecclesiastical building) and were at the height of their popularity in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries, and in Britain from the 1730s, directly because of Handel, Their roots can be traced back to the musical settings of sacred text found in the medieval mystery and miracle plays. Spurred on by the reforming spirit of the twenty-five sessions of the counter-Reformation body known as the Council of Trent, held in Italy and presided over by various Popes between 1545 and 1563, early musical orations (L’Oratio Musicale), or the telling of sacred stories with music, emerged in Florence and Rome. Of particular importance for the history of the oratorio was the performance, in 1600, at the Oratory of the Chiesa Nuova (New Church) of Cavalieri’s sacred opera Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo (Representation of the Soul and Body). This is the earliest known performance of a sacred text in which portions for a solo voice are set to music in a monadic (single-line) way. By the 1640s these orations had turned into dialogues in which more than one solo voice was used to represent more than one different character – the voices singing not simultaneously, but alternately. By 1659 two distinct types had emerged: the Oratorio Latino, and the Oratorio Volgare, using Latin and Italian texts respectively. The Latin texts were usually straight passages of biblical scripture, whereas the Italian texts were poetic stanzas re-telling Old Testament bible stories in the vernacular. Both were usually divided into two sections, known as the prima parte and the seconda parte, and often a sermon was preached in between them. The Italian composer Carissimi (1605-1674) was the first to introduce a chorus into his oratorios in order to add dramatic context to the stories. By the 1670s, orations (or oratorios such as this) were a firmly established form throughout Italy, and by the 1690s this had spread across the Alps to Germany, Austria and France, where the genre was also referred to variously as cantata musicale, componimento sacro, and dramma sacro.

Through the early eighteenth century, as well as being performed in churches and oratories, oratorios were also being performed in the private palaces and theatres of noblemen, and in other secular spaces.

With the exception of the passion story, the vast majority of story content was drawn from the Old Testament. From about 1700 most oratorios required between three and six solo voices to deliver the text, with four being by far the most popular number, plus a chorus. Recitative was the vehicle for conversation and dialogue, and to move the events of the plot along, whilst arias (and sometimes duets) were for reflection on the events of the plot and for religious contemplation. Choruses added dramatic context. As the Baroque period progressed, and the size and range of the orchestra grew, composers began to illustrate some of the drama with orchestral colour and instrumental texture. The many cantatas of J.S. Bach, written weekly from 1723 when he arrived in Leipzig to provide music and structure to Sunday morning worship at the Thomaskirche, can be regarded as mini-oratorios, having all of the musical elements of oratorio at the time, albeit with a condensed structure, plus the Lutheran addition of congregational chorales, or hymns.

The oratorio largely fell out of favour in the classical and early romantic period, opera – especially comic opera, being much preferred. A revival was begun by Elgar, in part to satisfy a growing demand generated by the rising popularity of Victorian provincial choral societies, with large-scale oratorios such as The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom. In the twentieth century, Benjamin Britten flirted with the genre with his Parody Cantatas Rejoice in the Lamb, Cantata Misericordium and St Nicholas.

Other notable twentieth-century examples include Belshazzar’s Feast by William Walton, A Child of Our Time by Sir Michael Tippett, Sancta Civitas by Vaughan Williams and La Transfiguration by Messiaen.

Other less popular and less prominent examples exist by Hindemith, Stravinsky, Debussy and Prokofiev.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

Musical Director – Peter Parfitt Peter Parfitt was educated at Bristol Cathedral School, where he received his early musical training as a chorister in the Cathedral Choir. At the age of sixteen he won a scholarship to the University of Durham, where he read Music and Latin and sang in the Cathedral Choir as a Choral Scholar, graduating from the Music Faculty with an honours degree. In 1987 he obtained his MMus. Following this he spent 8 years as a Lay Clerk in the Choir of Winchester Cathedral. During this time he appeared with the choir as a soloist on Radio 3. He also toured with the choir to Brazil, Australia and the USA and gave concerts in Paris, the South Bank, and at the Barbican, as well as on television and radio.

Peter held teaching posts at the Chorister School in Winchester, and positions as Director of Music in schools in Hampshire, London and East Sussex before taking up the post of Director of Music at St Margaret’s School for Girls in Aberdeen. Peter has directed a number of choral societies and operatic societies and appeared with many others as a soloist. He is an external examiner at A Level for the Oxford and Cambridge examinations board and also for the Scottish Qualifications Authority. He is also convenor of the Music Committee and the Scholarship Awarding Committee for the North East of Scotland Music School (NESMS).

Peter served for twelve years with the Royal Naval Reserves, where he specialised in submarine data communications. Other interests include playing the organ, reading, gardening and cooking.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

Soprano – Elinor Rolfe Johnson Elinor Rolfe Johnson graduated from Cambridge University with a Masters degree in Music, and studies with Susan Roberts. As a scholarship holder at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (where she was very kindly supported by the Russell Sheppard Trust Vocal Scholarship and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust), Elinor completed a Masters in opera in the summer of 2013.

Elinor was a finalist in the London Handel Festival Competition in 2010 and, in 2013, she sang her debut recital at the Wigmore Hall with William Vann. In the summer of 2014, Elinor covered at the Aix-enProvence Festival for the Bach Trauernacht project under Raphael Pichon and worked alongside the Freiburger Barockorchester with Pablo Heras-Casado in the festival’s production of Die Zauberflote.

Operatic roles include: Pamina Die Zauberflote, both Countess and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte, Rosalinde Die Fledermaus, Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ismene Orpheus. Elinor’s song repertoire comprises works by Britten, Poulenc, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Debussy and Strauss and oratorio by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Tippet, Vaughan Williams and Brahms.

Elinor has been delighted to work with the Israel Camerata and, last year, she performed the St John Passion with the Britten Sinfonia, directed by Mark Padmore. Other recent engagements include a Verdi Requiem tour with the Monteverdi Choir and a concert at Snape Maltings for the Aldeburgh Music Club. Elinor’s 2019 engagements include Vivaldi’s Gloria at Arundel Cathedral, Mahler’s RückertLieder with Colchester Symphony Orchestra and further tours with the Monteverdi Choir.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

Alto – Phillipa Thomas Phillipa Thomas achieved her Masters degree at the University of York, where she was awarded the Concerto Prize, before continuing to further success, winning first place in the Birmingham Conservatoire Singing Prize.

Recent roles include Dorabella Così fan tutte and Carmen Carmen with the Dulwich Opera Company, Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro with East London Opera, Giovanna Rigoletto with Nevill Holt Opera and Orlofsky Die Fledermaus with Fulham Opera. In 2017 Phillipa’s performance for Dulwich Opera Company was described as “the best Carmen I’ve seen since Maria Ewing… at Glyndebourne in the ‘80s.” by Louise Flind of Opera Today.

Recent oratorio engagements include Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Ben Pope, Duruflé’s Requiem with Bristol Choral Society under Hilary Campbell, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with King’s College Cambridge under Stephen Cleobury. Phillipa recorded the alto solos for numerous oratorios as part of a project with the professional ensemble Blossom Street Singers and in 2018 she was appointed Visiting Western Lecturer in Classical and Contemporary Vocal at KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, India.

Returning to Aberdeen, Phillipa is delighted to be giving her first performance of Israel in Egypt alongside Aberdeen Bach Choir.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

Tenor – Ronan Busfield British-Irish tenor, Ronan Busfield, was a ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ 2018 semi-finalist, wowing the judges with his rendition of “Maria” from West Side Story. Ronan was a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he studied music, and, after nearly joining the police force, he worked as a Lay Clerk in the Chapel Choir of St. George, Windsor Castle, singing for daily services, tours, broadcasts, concerts and public and private events for the royal family.

Subsequently, he completed English National Opera’s Opera Works, studied for a Masters in Opera at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Stephen Robertson and was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist.

Roles include: Edmondo L’assedio di Calais and Cecco Life on the Moon with English Touring Opera, Ordinary Person Inês de Castro, Father The Seven Deadly Sins and Gastone/ Giuseppe La traviata with Scottish Opera, Nemorino L’elisir d’amore with Winterbourne Opera, Philippe The Sleeping Queen by Balfe with Wexford Festival Opera, Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Jerome Betrothal in a Monastery and Woodpecker The Cunning Little Vixen with RCS/Scottish Opera, Mayor Albert Herring with RCS and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.

Recent concert performances include Mozart Requiem and Schubert Auf dem Strom at the Southwell Festival, Britten Serenade in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the City of London Sinfonia, Beethoven An die ferne Geliebte and Schumann Liederkreis Op.39, Bach Advent Cantatas, and Bruckner Te Deum and Verdi Requiem at the Glasgow City Halls.

When not engaged in singing, Ronan works in the world of Human Resources, and enjoys spending time with his young family, renovating his house, which used to be a pub, and attempting to train his stubborn rescue German wirehaired pointer.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

Baritone – James Williams James Williams studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, during which time he received training from eminent figures such as Richard Bonynge, Simon Keenlyside and John Shirley-Quirk. Since graduating he has enjoyed an active performing career throughout the UK, Europe and Asia.

Having interpreted the title roles in Don Giovanni, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Le nozze di Figaro, James can also list Papageno, Il Conte d’Almaviva, Falke, Schaunard and Aeneas in his operatic repertoire. His portrayal of Don Alfonso for Dulwich Opera Company’s tour of Così fan tutte this year was deemed “suavely resonant” (The Stage), while making “bottom notes ring out with… cheerful malice” (Lark Reviews). In 2017, James performed the role of Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia as part of a performance led by the charitable organisation Les Amis de Bizet, in association with Teresa Berganza.

James has collaborated with the composers Jonathan Rathbone and Howard Goodall on their respective sacred works, Christmas Truce and Eternal Light - A Requiem, whilst other oratorio performances include Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Finzi’s Et in terra pax, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

James served as Musical Director for Brent Opera during their productions of Macbeth, Martha, and Nabucco, while having worked as a répétiteur for various Londonbased opera companies. As a composer, he witnessed the premiere of his Mass for St. Helen earlier this year, as well as his commemorative cycle of war songs for baritone and piano, performed to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice.

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

THE ABERDEEN SINFONIETTA Aberdeen Sinfonietta was formed originally as a small ensemble which played regularly in Aberdeen and also toured throughout Scotland. Since then it has substantially increased its membership in order to extend its musical repertoire and to give many of the area’s professional and outstanding amateur musicians the opportunity to perform in its concerts.

Aberdeen Sinfonietta now has its own annual series of concerts in Aberdeen’s Music Hall, and has established itself as one of the foremost contributors to music-making in this part of Scotland. While the Music Hall has been closed for refurbishment, the Sinfonietta has enjoyed playing in other Aberdeen venues, and also giving two concerts in Dundee’s Caird Hall.

Violins:

Bryan Dargie (Leader) Teresa Boag Jean Fletcher Ruth Kalitski Rachel Mackison Jenna Main Guera Maunder Aden Mazur Coralie Usmani

Violas:

Sandra Campbell Richard Clark Jonathan Kightley

Cellos:

Alison MacDonald Hilary Cromar Mary Dargie Bill Linklater

Double bass:

Ray Leonard

Flutes:

Margaret Preston Kathryn Gammie

Oboes:

Geoffrey Bridge Fiona Gordon

Bassoons:

Lesley Wilson Angela Clark

Trumpets:

Alan Haggart Gerry Dawson

Trombones:

Mark Boyd Eddie McGovern Laura Bleck

Timpani:

Isabel John

Continuo:

David Gerrard - organ Alison MacDonald - cello

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

The Aberdeen Bach Choir Founded as the Aberdeen Bach Society by Charles Sanford Terry in 1913, and reconstituted as the Aberdeen Bach Choir in 1956, the choir usually performs two main concerts a year in St Machar’s Cathedral. The repertoire of the choir is comprehensive and drawn from a wide variety of cultures, styles and periods. Past concerts have included the following works: J. S. Bach Beethoven Bernstein Borodin Britten Bruckner Buxtehude Byrd Danile-Lesur Duruflé G. Gabrieli Gowers M. Haydn Howells Hummel Jenkins Langlais Lassus Liszt Messiaen Monteverdi McLeod Mozart Pärt Pekhonen Pergolesi Poulenc Praetorius Purcell Rutter Schubert Stravinsky Tallis Vaughan Williams Vierne Vivaldi Walton

Christmas Oratorio, Easter Oratorio, St Matthew Passion, St John Passion, Magnificat, Mass in B Minor Mass in C Chichester Psalms Polovtsian Dances Festival Te Deum, St Cecilia, St Nicholas Mass in F, various motets Nimm von uns Herr du treuer Gott, Jesu, meines Lebens Leben, Der Herr ist mit mir Te Deum Messe du Jubilée Requiem, Ubi Caritas, Total Pulchra es Maria, Tu es Petrus, Tantum Ergo, Hodie Christus Natus Est, O Magnum Mysterium, Salvator Noster, Beata es Virgo Viri Galilæi Missa Trinitatis, Missa Sanctae Theresiae Te Deum (Collegium Regale), Magnificat (Gloucester Service), Like as the Hart Te Deum The Armed Man Messe Solennelle Missa Bell’Amfitrit Altera, Domine Exaudi Missa Choralis O Sacrum Convivium Vespro Della Beata Virgine 1610, Dixit Dominus, Confiteor, Beatus Vir Chronicle of St Machar (Bach Choir commission) Missa Brevis in D, Missa Brevis in F, Requiem, Great Mass in C Minor, Vespers Te Deum, Magnificat, Berliner Messe, Cantate Domino Russian Requiem Magnificat O Magnum Mysterium, Quem Vidistis, Videntes Stellam, Hodie Christus Natus Est Magnificat Quinti Toni Te Deum, St Cecilia Magnificat, Gloria, Requiem Mass in G, Mass in E Flat Symphony of Psalms Te Deum An Oxford Elegy, Te Deum Messe Solennelle Beatus Vir, Domine ad adiuvandeum me Festina, Gloria Te Deum, The Twelve 28

Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

The Aberdeen Bach Choir CHOIR 1

SOPRANO

ALTO

TENOR

Lucy Bailey

Kate Anderson

Paul Davison

Jill Binns

Kathleen Christie

Charles Guillianotti

Helen Chisholm

Isabella Cook

Bruce Irvine

Isla Chisholm

Barbara Crane

Janet Ogilvie

Rosalind Coleman

Pat Cruickshank

Tobias Wolf

Cathy Guthrie

Althea Dickens

Kathleen Haw

Rosemary Feilden

Julia House

Ellen Henke

Pamela Hoy

Judy Junker

Annie Humphrey

Janet MacDonald

Ceri Kindley

Christine Mackenzie

Kerstin Krรถger

Kate Mason

Margaret Macaulay

Jo McPherson

Sandra Massey

Frances Milne

Jennifer Morrice

Lindsey Mountford

Janet Ollason

Lesley Mowat

Lesley Robertson

Saskia Mucke

Ulrike Sauer-Stammeijer

Delyth Parkinson

Marta Visocchi

Adele Perry

Natalie Westoby

Jana Skene

Hazel Wilkins

Margaret Spence

BASS David Benson George Cameron David Coleman Nigel Crabb Mike Harding Stefan Horsman Jim Hunter George Lawrence Andrew Leadbetter Graham Mountford Mike Radcliffe David Way Fraser Westwood

Anne Watson Clare Wilkie

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Conrad Wiedermann

ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

The Aberdeen Bach Choir CHOIR 2

SOPRANO

ALTO

TENOR

Gill Bishop

Kari Rist Aasen

Michael Brooks

Jane Cameron

Libby Brand

Paul McKay

Clare Carden

Helen Goodyear

James Millar

Niamh Ellison

Freda Imrie

Alan Scott

Amy Gooder

Muriel Knox

Leofric Studd

Kate Graham

Isobel Malcolm

Anne Henderson

Sybil McAleese

BASS

Lorna Herbert

Rachel Morland

Tom Batey

Janet Hoper

Louise Page

Chris Erni

Jane Jones

Tilly Potter

Jim Hardy

Louise Locock

Margaret Rayner

John Harle

Frances McAndrew

Jane Rodger

Roger Hessing

Alison Potts

Camille Simpson

Andrew Keay

Edith Power

Val Thomas

Mike Longhurst

Alison Purvis

Michaela Wiedermann

Mark Rodgers

Izabela Ratusinska

Brian Wilkins

Alice Ronsberg Angela Slater Alyson Smith Dawn Smith Karen Smith

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Handel Israel in Egypt ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR

Next Concert 7.45 pm on 28 April 2019 at St Machar’s Cathedral Come and join us for our performance of significant anthems and canticles to celebrate the improvements and restoration recently made to the Willis organ in St Machar’s Cathedral.

The concert will open with Handel’s triumphant anthem Zadok the Priest and will include choral works by Elgar, Howells, Pärt, Parry, Finzi, Ireland and Vaughan Williams. The Choir will be accompanied by David Gerrard, and the concert will also feature two organ solos performed by Dr Roger B Williams M.B.E., Director of Music and Organist to the Cathedral Church of St Machar, Old Aberdeen.

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ABERDEEN BACH CHOIR Handel Israel in Egypt

The Aberdeen Bach Choir supports musical education in Aberdeen through the Ellie Pirie Scholarship, James Lobban Conducting Scholarship, and James Lobban Prize for Musicology

Printed and designed by The Gatehouse - Design & Print Agency at Robert Gordon University http://thegatehouseagency.co.uk

This concert is made possible by the James Lobban Legacy The Aberdeen Bach Choir is a registered charity

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